Page 34 of The Gambler's Prize
“Night, Florian,” I say.
I go into the kitchen and throw up the agram on the floor.
Chapter 15
Florian
Next morning, I go outside and drag some water up from the well to wash my shirt. Calling up the memory of last night still makes me shiver. I keep replaying it over and over, the heat between us, the ecstasy as I came. Especially my boss putting the blanket over me and looking at me so tenderly. I’m lost to the world, and only notice him approach when he’s right in front of me.
“Oh, hello, Boss.” I give him a big, morning-after smile. “Do you have anything you want me to wash for you?”
He looks uncomfortable, avoiding looking at my shirt.
“I do my own laundry,” he says, his voice jerky. Embarrassed. “Anyway, I didn’t think those aristocratic hands would be up for extra laundry duty. They’re going to get all rough.”
I can’t tell if he’s mocking me or actually concerned about it.
“Another thing,” he says. “We’re having Breta and her family over for dinner tonight, and you’re going to apologize for making a spectacle of yourself the last time.”
If he’s trying to get me to be sensible looming over me while I’m on my knees scrubbing the cum out of my shirt that he drew from me while he spanked the shit out of me… well, maybe that isn’t the way to do it.
“Yes, Boss,” I say, head on one side.
“Do you mind not taking that tone?” he growls.
The more flirtatious I get, the rougher his voice becomes. He’s going to injure his vocal cords if he keeps this up. He holds out a hand and pulls me to my feet, so hard I almost overbalance. I guess I’d better behave, a little, before he really gets mad.
“So what should I cook tonight?” I ask, drying my hands.
He grunts, scratching under his hood, his eyes stubbornly on a cactus at the other side of the yard. “Your Galbravan stew is pretty good.”
Myeverythingis pretty good, but I refrain from saying so. He’s still scowling darkly. Is this more than embarrassment after last night? Is he really annoyed at me?
“Boss, you don’t think I was just toying with Prevana, do you?” I ask. “Like some… some callous duke who toys with his servants and then leaves them?”
He finally looks at me. His eyes weigh me up in that steady way of his. “I didn’t say that.”
“But you seem really annoyed with me.”
He crosses his arms. “You say you weren’t toying with her. But could you see yourself with her in the long-term?”
So he does disapprove. I knew it.
“That doesn’t mean I was using her. We were both having fun.” I spread out my hands. “That’s all there is to it.”
“I’ll never understand that,” he mutters.
“What?”
“Being so casual about these things.”
I blink, feeling hurt. He’s making me feel like a slut, and not in the fun way like last night.
“I’ll apologize, but I really don’t think Prevana is going to be heartbroken,” I say.
“Why so sure?”
“For one, because she knows I’m not a free agent right now. She knows you have me under lock and key.”
